Our go-to 5-ingredient Peanut Sauce! Made with ingredients you likely have on hand right now. Perfect for salads, spring rolls, noodle dishes, and more!
5-Ingredient Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
SAUCE
- 1/2 cup salted creamy peanut butter* (or almond butter or sunflower butter)
- 2-3 Tbsp gluten-free tamari (if not gluten-free sub soy sauce // if soy-free sub coconut aminos*)
- 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup (or other sweetener of choice)
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce (or 1 red Thai chili, minced // or 1/4 tsp red pepper flake // adjust to preferred spice level)
- 2-3 Tbsp lime juice
- ~1/4 cup Water (to thin)
Instructions
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To a medium mixing bowl add (starting with the amount at the lower end of the measurement range where applicable) peanut butter, tamari (or soy sauce or coconut aminos), maple syrup, lime juice, chili sauce (or chili or red pepper), and whisk to combine. Add water a little at a time until a thick but pourable sauce is achieved.
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Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more maple syrup for sweetness, chili garlic sauce (or red chili or red pepper) for heat, lime juice for acidity, or tamari for saltiness. If your sauce has become too thin, add more nut butter. If it's too thick, thin with more water. For a fun flavor twist, add some fresh grated ginger to taste.
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Perfect for salads, spring rolls, noodle dishes, and more! Pairings linked above. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Notes
*The best peanut butter to use is made with just peanuts and salt (no other additives). Our favorite brand currently is Wild Friends.
*If subbing coconut aminos know that it isn't as pungent or salty a flavor as tamari and soy sauce. So you may need to add a bit more than the recommended amount. Season to taste.
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated with the lesser amount of the tamari, maple syrup, and lime juice.
*The above photos show examples of sauce made with peanut butter, cashew butter, and sunflower butter.
Nutrition Per Serving (1 of 4)
- Calories: 207
- Fat: 16.1g
- Saturated fat: 3.4g
- Sodium: 686mg
- Carbohydrates: 10.2g
- Fiber: 2g
- Sugar: 6.2g
- Protein: 9g
Made it, so yummy! Put it on rice, roasted veggies, and baked tofu. Instead of chili garlic sauce (my partner doesn’t do spicy!), we minced a clove of garlic, and added some fresh shredded ginger and tumeric for added flavor. Also added in like 1/2 tsp miso since we did the coconut aminos (see note). Great base recipe!
How many grams of peanut butter and how many mls of water is that?
Hi Ethel! That should be about 133g of peanut butter and 59 ml of water. Hope this helps!
You can switch between US & metric under the Ingredients title.. I just made the sauce. Tastes great even when I added a tablespoon of tahini paste by mistake !
Five stars for this quick peanut sauce. I just “dump” everything in a small food processor and that’s it! Wonderful on any kind of cabbage, kale, brussel sprout salad. If you go to Trader Joe’s it is fantastic on their “Cruciferous Crunch collection” with added grated carrot, Persian cucumbers and diced apple. Sometimes, particularly if I am using it on cooked tempeh or tofu or on stir fry, I add some grated ginger and minced garlic.
What dish the first picture! It looks delish.
Hi Ellie! That is our Blissed-Out Rainbow Thai Salad! :D
I have sauce left over – can it be frozen?
We don’t recommend freezing it, Ruby but you can store leftovers covered in the refrigerator up to 1 week!
Easy and fast and good!
I like a spoonful on warm brown rice with a dash of soy sauce.
Made this tonight when our carry out was missing sauce for spring rolls. It’s great, better than what I would have received with the order, and super easy to make! I used agave nectar as the sweetener.
Wow! This is so much easier and waaaaay tastier than other peanut sauce recipes I’ve tried. This is my new go-to. Fabulous.
A new favorite! Really truly yummy!
Yay! Thanks for sharing, Allie!
I’ve purchased bottled peanut sauce, and there’s no comparison! This is great! But I tripled the recipe, and there’s no way I’ll eat it all in a week! Can it be frozen, or bottled in some method where it can last, like store-bought?
Most yummy peanut sauce. I made this today and absolutely loved it. Thanks I can always count on your recipes.
Just made to go along with vegan pad thai and the Thai yellow mango Curry :) It’s delicious and I know will be perfect with the pad thai tonight
Sooooo good. I was being lazy and microwaved it. I only had chunky peanut butter which I actually liked the chunks of peanuts in it, Coconut aminos, and I used sriracha sauce for the chili pepper. I absolutely love it. I travel a lot and have grown to love and use peanut sauce in about everything. Thinking of it on vanilla ice cream too lol. This took me 2 minutes to make. Then added to shredded baked chicken. I’ve been craving peanut sauce and glad I found this recipe. Its in mmyt permanent use all the time recipes now
Great recipe. I added a little olive oil and coconut water, which added a lightness. Loved the result. Used it on a vegetable stir fry with cauliflower rice. Everyone raved.
Superb!!! I will be making the all the time. I am working on clean eating right now and this fits right in with what I want to do! It tastes GREAT!!